Another cyclone is threatening India, this time in the Bay of Bengal

Mangalore Today News Network / News18

Kolkata, May 19, 2021:      As cyclone ‘Tauktae’ battered parts of Gujarat and left behind a trail of destruction, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Tuesday warned that a low-pressure area is likely to form over the east-central Bay of Bengal and will make landfall around May 23-24.

 

The cyclone that will be called ‘Yaas’, a name was given by Oman. Warning of a likely formation of low-pressure area over Bay of Bengal next week, once the intensification and cyclogenesis is flagged on the forecast skill range, the cyclone will be mentioned officially in the forecasts, Sunitha Devi, in charge of cyclones at the IMD told the Hindustan Times.

Devi also noted that the sea surface temperature SST) is at 31 degrees above the Bay of Bengal, around 1-2 degrees Celsius above average, making oceanic and atmospheric conditions favourable for cyclone storm development.

At least 13 people have died in Gujarat as cyclone Tauktae pummelled parts of the state and left behind a trail of destruction along the coast, uprooting electric poles, trees and damaging thousands of houses and roads. Tauktae, characterised as an extremely severe cyclonic storm on Monday, has now weakened into a “cyclonic storm" and will gradually become a “deep depression" as it moves northwards, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.

The landfall process of the eye of the extremely severe cyclonic storm Tauktae, which hit the Gujarat coast in the Saurashtra region between Diu and Una, ended around midnight on Monday, the IMD said.

The remnant of the weather system is very likely to move north-eastwards across Rajasthan to west Uttar Pradesh during May 19 and 20, said the Ministry of Home Ministry in its advisory. As of Tuesday evening, the cyclonic storm lay centred over Saurashtra, around 35km west of Ahmedabad, 80km east-northeast of Surendranagar, and 120 km south-southeast of Deesa, with the wind intensity now reduced to 60-70 kmph gusting to 80 kmph, the IMD said.

The IMD said districts such as Amreli, Bhavnagar, Navsari, Valsad, Sabarkantha, among others in Gujarat, and Daman and Dadra and Nagar Haveli in the neighbouring Union Territory as well as Sabarkantha, were likely to receive heavy to very heavy rainfall.